In the Mission

We Received this Message Today

I just got to the mission, everyone here is so nice. The bus ride took a while. there were some protesters that blocked the road or something like that, I guess people don't like the government. all is well though, I'm sorry I don't have time to write more.

P days are on Mondays in this mission, so that's when you'll get the next email.

I love you guys

4 Hours Later We Received This

Dear Brother and Sister,

Your missionary has officially made it safely to the mission!   Sister Goodman and I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with him.  We are excited to start working alongside him in the work of the Lord here. We already love him and we know he will be a truly outstanding servant of the Lord.

With our love and appreciation,

President and Sister Goodman

Week 5

I'm glad you are all doing well, that's awesome.

I don't really have much to tell about what I'm doing. It is basically just lots of class time, we haven't really gotten out of the MTC much.  Since we are leaving for the field next week, the teachers have started cramming content into the classes. There is a ton of work learning the lessons, the language, and all that good stuff.

My favorite day of the week is Sunday, which is weird cause it never was before.  But now the Sabbath is actually a delight. I'm not quite sure what is different though. Maybe it is cause we work so hard the rest of the week, or maybe it's because... Well here is what I think. Most of the week, I'm operating under a certain level of stress, so when Sunday comes around it is finally a chance to rest mentally.  We have all kinds of devotionals after the usual three meetings of church so we get to rest, and refuel spiritually. It is seriously the greatest thing in the world.

My district here is the greatest, it will be sad to leave them when we go to the field next week. my companion is pretty awesome, his testimony is really strong, and he works so hard to be the best he can. We still have some things to work out, in the actual teaching part though.  He tends to give 2 thirds of the lesson, and I give a third, almost every time. I don't want to say it's his fault, but I'm pretty sure it is. That is awful of me to say though; there are a lot of things he is really good at.  His Spanish is better than mine, and he is a lot better at preparing lessons.  He just doesn't always know when to yield the floor. But aside from that little quirk in our lessons, we work really well together, and I love him.

Speaking of loving people, the Latino Elders are so much fun to talk to. They like to joke about Trump a lot for some reason too.... Most of the time the ones that speak English are easier to talk to, cause they understand that they need to talk slowly for us to understand since they went through the same struggles when they learned English. some of the other ones will talk super fast, and when you ask them to repeat it slowly, they will say it just as fast, just with pauses between the words, which doesn't help much.  Anyway, they have such a great senses of humor.  Also, everyone here listens to American music.  There is this Catholic school down the road, and they are always blasting music, most of which I recognize.  It's a blessing and a curse, cause we aren't supposed to listen to worldly music.

Next week I will leave for the field.  As far as I know, it is a 3 or 4-hour bus ride to the mission home.  There we will be assigned to a trainer, who is basically just a companion who knows the ropes and is willing to take a newbie under his wing.  We will have five minutes to write and say we didn't die on the bus. So it will be a couple weeks before you get a real email.

I am not ready to go to the field at all, but I also know I will learn much faster out there, and I am excited to get to work!

love you all, Adios!

Week 3

So it turns out McDonald's delivers here!  Isn't that crazy. They have little boxes for the food on the backs of their motorcycles.

So I didn't have time to mention in my last email, but we had a visit from Elder Cordon of the 70.  You know, the guy grandpa and I met in Nauvoo.  He gave us a very nice devotional on missionary work. It was pretty awesome.

Today was the most interesting P day of all, we got to go to the zoo, and there were a few animals that got out of their cages.  Nothing dangerous, just a few peacocks, and some kind of reptile lizard thing.  I will send you some pictures when I get out of the CCM.  By the way, I asked a teacher why we can't send pictures, he said it was blocked on these computers... something to do with youtube.  So you'll have to wait for the photos for another 3 weeks or so.

I'm halfway through the CCM and boy is it crazy, time flies by so fast.  I feel like I just got here last week.  I can't wait to get out in the field, but its also super terrifying, cause I'm not anywhere near ready, and I am already halfway there.

We just had a huge group of people leave, so there are only about 32 missionaries here right now.  We got 3 or 4 new ones today, and there are about another 100 coming tomorrow.

It's crazy how similar Guatemala city is to America.  Aside from a different language, it's about the same. It is like a more colorful version of downtown Seattle.  I can't wait to see what it's like in the field. We are just 3 blocks away from the temple, so we go there every P day.

I'm almost to the point where I can read the book of Mormon in Spanish, and I can understand most of Preach My Gospel.  There are occasionally a couple essential words in the sentence that I don't know, but it's coming along. The scriptures are harder because they are written in vosotros form, and they use an odd vocabulary. But when you think about it, so do the scriptures in English. It's like when you're a kid, and you can read just fine, but the scriptures still make no sense. But I've been reading it every night, and it gets easier. At first, it took me 10 minutes to read 2 verses:  I had to be constantly checking the English scriptures, or the dictionary, or both.  But now I can understand most of it without either.

The gift of tongues is an interesting thing. I always thought it was basically God will put the words in your mouth, and you can suddenly speak another language, but it's not like that at all. You have to work diligently and study hard.  God will help you learn faster, and when you need it, he will bring words you've studied to your remembrance.